Mufti to take charge of BJP-PDP govt, J-K to witness tectonic shift

The historic swearing in ceremony of the BJP-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alliance government on Sunday will see the state witness a major political shift in its power corridors. PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed will be sworn-in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining too.

The historic swearing in ceremony of the BJP-People's Democratic Party (PDP) alliance government on Sunday will see the state witness a major political shift in its power corridors. PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed will be sworn-in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining too.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah has already vacated the chief minister’s residence at Wazarat Road in Jammu. It is likely to be taken over by Sayeed.

“He (Abdullah) has cleared the residence. He can take the No Objection Certificate anytime now as all items of the estates department are intact,” estates department director Sheikh Fayaz told HT.

The two-storey multi-bedroom CM bungalow is also home to antique and priceless walnut furniture and carpets, many from pre-independence era.

Sources said the estates department has asked close aides of Sayeed to pick up fresh furniture before he shifts to the bungalow, the power corridor in winter capital Jammu. Just a few kilometres away from the CM residence, the staff of Jammu’s civil secretariat is busy dusting rooms, disposing of cases last-minute and doing paperwork to welcome new ministers of the coalition, with around 50% likely to be first-timers. “It is a different exercise to brief first timers. It takes them time to adjust to the system,” said a top bureaucrat on the condition of anonymity. Sources said many would-be ministers have expressed desire to keep their rooms as close as possible to the CM and deputy CM’s room.